My Favorite Paintings at J. Paul Getty Museum - Getty Center, Los Angeles

What I found most interesting at J. Paul Getty Museum - Getty Center in Los Angels were European paintings, and my top choice was Portrait of the Marquesa de Santiago (1804) by Spanish painter Goya — a formal portrait of an aristocratic lady in dramatically contrasting black dress with golden braids, pink shoes, and white lacy mantilla, with provocatively exaggerated makeup, standing atop a hill, a closed fan in hand, and holding herself like a seasoned stage trooper.

Goya employed broad and quick brushstrokes to establish her black dress and rustic cottages in the low lying village at distance, seen behind tilting ground, which, along with stormy sky, contributed to establish a personality prone to self-dramatization. Despite Goya's loose brushstrokes, this full length portrait was still very realistic, though the sitter's face was curiously plastic and devoid of personality. Maybe Goya did capture his sitter rather too well.


Francisco Goya [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons
Portrait of the Marquesa de Santiago, 1804, Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (Francisco de Goya) (Spanish, 1746 - 1828)

I was also very impressed by Edvard Munch's Starry Night (1893), whose sweeping atmospheric sky, mysteriously-shaped mound and other objects on the shore, and the mirror-like glinty sea, often basked in a blue wash, gave us a sense what the beginning of everything might have looked like, and we were in the presence of some celestial phenomenon recorded with quick brushstrokes and varying thickness of paints of blue, green, maroon, and brilliant white, interlaced with some eloquent patches of almost naked canvas, where the paints thinned out. Altogether, those loosely applied pigments and vaguely suggested elements not only generated a shimmering atmosphere, but gyrating slow movements as well, and the viewers were dazzled by that.


Edvard Munch [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Starry Night, 1893, Edvard Munch (Norwegian, 1863 - 1944)


My Favorite Museum Collection Series
>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 153: My Favorite Sculptures at J. Paul Getty Museum - Getty Villa, Los Angeles (Malibu)
<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 151: My Favorite Paintings at Yale University Art Gallery

List of My Favorite Artworks in the Museums I've Visited

Other Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:
- LACMA - Los Angeles County Museum of Art
- Getty Villa in Los Angeles (Malibu)
- The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles
- Brand New Contemporary Art Museum - The Broad Museum in Los Angeles
- Urs Fischer Exhibit at MOCA, Los Angeles
- Revisiting Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena
- Surprisingly Urbane Los Angeles

Official Portrait of Princes William and Harry

San Francisco Chronicle reported that a new official portrait of Princes William and Harry of UK by artist Nicky Philipps was on display at the National Portrait Gallery alongside other royal portraits.

The painting was well-executed - I like its somber tone and the poses between casual and formal and the apparent brotherly connection between the sitters. It recalled me Whistler's Mother. The simplistic frontal lighting did not generate drama, instead it instilled a certain serenity. Perhaps precisely because of these, the painting seems a little dated and lacks a certain edge and energy. Was the artist being ironic? However, the painting does draw viewers in and invites people to ponder. In that sense, it is a success. The golden frame however clashes with the blue sash violently and should be replaced as soon as possible.

An official portrait is always difficult to inject artistic statement, but a successful artist must find inspirations from this constraint. One of my favorite official portrait is "Charles IV and His Family" by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (see below). The Princes William and Harry is a very good official portrait; I just wish the artist and the sitters would be bolder and have made more excellent decisions.